A Living Knowledge Map: Managing How the Your Institutional Map Evolves Over Time

I’m excited to share my recently published book chapter from Metrics, Mapping, and Modelling for Masterful Management in Higher Education (Emerald Press, 2025) entitled Keep Up with or Contribute to the SKM’s Ongoing Development.

Chapter 29 is about keeping the Sentient Knowledge Map (SKM) alive, current, and community-powered as it continues to evolve. It shows institutions how to configure local SKM installations to synchronize with either a community master or an institutional master, and how to identify exactly what has changed since the last sync—so campuses can confidently pull in new features, expanded content, and improved mappings without losing the integrity of their local customizations. The chapter emphasizes that many future enhancements are already documented inside the SKM itself, and that areas like linking accreditor standards to metrics and self-study reporting will deepen as collaborators join. It also highlights the growing shared-resource libraries—metrics, models, and other best practices—that expand as new sources are discovered and institutions contribute. Finally, the chapter invites a “pay it forward” culture: as campuses benefit from the SKM, they’re encouraged to give back by sharing locally developed resources, lessons learned, and improvement strategies, with clear guidance on how volunteers can participate and what information they should provide to receive credit for their contributions.

Many of the book’s chapters have a companion video which can be viewed for free on the Higher Education Leadership Learning Online Community web site. Visit the site to see the complete and evolving list.

If you’re involved in higher-ed leadership, strategy, assessment, or institutional research, I’d love for you to take a look at the chapter and add your comments below. If you would like assistance implementing any of the ideas addressed, please compete a consultation request form – the first hour is free for any institution.